


Like A Word, A Sound, A Song

by orphan_account



Series: Like A Word, A Sound, A Song [1]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Gem Language, Greg Universe is a Good Dad, Music, Other, Steven Is An Alien And Connie Is Reminded Of This, The Implications Of 'My' As An Honorific And That One Time Steven Said 'My Connie', The Maheswarans Starring in 'I Forgot My Son-in-Law Is An Alien', gem culture, i was thinking about asgardian allspeak and now we're here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-01-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:01:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22256875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: It starts with a well-meaning question from Mr. Universe.orHe is both human, and not. She forgets, sometimes.
Relationships: Connie Maheswaran/Steven Universe
Series: Like A Word, A Sound, A Song [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1604719
Comments: 26
Kudos: 159





	1. But They're Learning, At Least

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A first of many "human beings" talks.
> 
> or
> 
> Gems don't speak English. They don't really speak at all.

* * *

Steven had suddenly remembered some kind of ice cream sandwich sale and had rushed off instantly on a determined quest to feed Connie all the foods her parents don't allow her to eat at home. It's sweet, and she doesn't mind the wait, but it's still a little awkward to suddenly be left alone with ~~Mr. Universe~~.

 ~~Greg~~.

 ~~Greg Universe~~.

Mr. Greg.

"So.." At least he looks about as awkward as she feels, cheeks puffed out under his beard. "Swords, huh?"

"Oh! Swords! Yeah!" Yep, swords, Connie can talk swords. Connie can talk swords, and keep talking swords until they forget they're supposed to be awkward around eachother. "I've been taking lessons with Pearl every other day after school."

"Oh wow. Pearl as a teacher?" Mr. Greg's bushy eyebrows threaten to fly off his head with surprise. "Pearl as a _teacher_. Wild. She treatin' you okay?"

"She's a very harsh teacher. But in a good way!" She thumbs at a new rough patch on her hands, and laughs. It's funny, to be so fond about soreness and calluses. "I'm the _cool_ kid in my PE class now. I've never been the cool anything before." 

"Then let me officially welcome to Coolsville- population, you." He idly tunes the guitar, not quite ready to put it away. "So you've been at the temple a lot, then. Hanging out with the Gems."

"Just Pearl. A-and Steven, since he's part of the training now. I'm not really... _hanging out_ with Garnet, or Amethyst. Sometimes they watch, though."

"Hmm. They talk to you much? The Gems?"

That's... kind of a weird question. "Well, Pearl talks to me. First it was just pointers, or old war stories, but now we end up talking books while sparring as multitask training. She likes to pick apart how wrong historical books are." _The others, on the other hand..._ "And I guess Amethyst is pretty chatty, when she wants to be. But Garnet's about the same as usual."

All out of guitar to tune, he finally puts it away, fingers drumming on his legs. "Listen, Connie... this is probably gonna sound weird, but have- um, how've you been feeling, now that you hang around the Gems? Physically, I mean."

How _doesn't_ she feel, really. "I'm always a bit achey after training from all the workout, but Steven always heals me afterwords. I think it's been making my muscle build faster?" Connie stops. She doesn't know why she trips over the next example. "He fixed my eyes. That's how we found out he had healing powers." She fishes a hand through her glasses. "I don't even need these anymore. I just wear them so my parents won't freak out." She scrunches up her face to squint at Mr. Greg. "You're asking a lot of weird questions. Are you saying something _should_ be happening?"

"I dunno." He looks away for a moment. "Migraines. Dizziness. Weird head stuff."

What. "Why?"

"You know how Gems are, well, _aliens_." She nods, he nods. It's good. "Aliens that can speak perfect English."

"Well, they have lived on Earth for thousands of years."

"Jasper didn't. Lapis didn't. They hadn't been on this planet since the Gem War, probably never even _met_ a human before Steven!"

"Oh. _Oh_."

"Yeah." 

"So... how?"

"Gems... don't actually speak. They never have." He rakes a hand through his hair. "Not naturally at least. Their 'language' is more of a... song. This stream of music that worms its way into your brain and turns itself into words. How do you think Steven got so good at music? He's kind of made for it."

"So when you were asking about migraines..."

"Gem language has a lot of weird frequencies, and it can mess with our human heads. It really depends on the Gem, and their mood, ya know?" He winces at an old memory. "I almost passed out once listening to Pearl talk for too long."

If Connie thought about it, _really_ thought about it, she could almost remember an odd pressure in her ears, after the first time she had talked to the Gems. But after her and Steven became friends... it never happened again. She had been so excited, so scared, so _happy_ after all that day, that she had... forgotten.

There must have been something in the look on her face, to make Mr. Greg scramble to reassure her like he did. "Hey, hey! If you couldn't tell anything was wrong, it's obviously different for you. That's a good thing. It means they're learning, and you're part of that."

"I'll keep that in mind, Mr. Greg."

Steven runs back to them as tireless as ever, with a little more snacks than he had meant to leave for. The embarrassed giggle in his voice as it wraps around her name rings like a song.

* * *


	2. Resting Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mom said the monsters don't have a pulse.

* * *

The first time she'd caught him asleep, she had stared.

It was weird. It was rude. 

(It was kind of creepy.)

She just couldn't help it. Steven, by definition, seemed to always be in motion, even if he was sitting down and doing nothing. A loud, bright bundle of life that generated presence no matter how small he seemed. But here, sitting slumped in his sleep like one of his teddy bears, all of it was gone. He even managed to look softer, somehow. Hardly moving.

Hardly breathing.

Next thing she knew, she was shaking one bleary eyed Steven out of his accidental nap. In her defense, she kind of panicked. The line between 'sleeping' and 'peacefully dying' could be a bit of a grey area.

It was fine. Steven was fine. Everything was fine.

.....

They were watching a movie in Mr. Greg's van. Steven fell asleep.

"It used to freak me out, too."

She snaps her head away. "Wha-"

Mr. Greg flicks his eyes knowingly at his son. " _That_. Sleeping like someone toggled the off switch on him. He's been like that since he was a baby."

"Must've been nice not to have a fussy baby."

"Gave me anxiety more than anything. Babies are _supposed_ to fuss. I kept thinking he'd gotten sick." A guitar callused hand reaches out to tidy stray black curls. "But this is his normal. I can't imagine him without it."

.....

Mom said that the Gem monsters didn't have a pulse. A week later, Connie holds Steven's hand while they walk, and for once she's glad that he never quite caught on to what falls under normal human friendliness.

It's stupid. She's being irrational. Steven isn't a wayward shard or corrupted Gem- he's just _Steven_ and she's grabbing his hand out of nowhere wondering if he has any pulse. So what? What does it matter if he has a heartbeat or not? Pearl doesn't, and that never bothered her before.

It shouldn't freak her out. It doesn't. It can't. It _won't-_

She felt it. A pulse.

Small, so very small. No, no- not small, never small, Steven was never _small_. But... distant. Strong yet distant, like the slow drum of thunder.

It's strange. It's alien.

( _It's Steven_.)

.....

Steven is the ashen, bloodless shiver under his own weight as she carries him. He is his head weakly turned outwards, eyes fixed on everything and nothing. He is a hand reached outward, he is a breathless voice begging for his life. He is a heartbeat, so uncomfortably present, a frantic, wild hammer against the dying anvil of his body bleeding out through her dad's jacket.

Steven is a living hologram, the shape of a boy that impassively observes her from across the floor. A walking glitch that clips on air over the craters he has made with words alone. Their hands meet for a moment as he takes back his body from her, and she finds no pulse, only a persistent ringing vibration leaving its ghost even as she steps away.

Steven is twinning tearful smiles, a joyful dance for two, a spinning flash of light rocking on its own axis. He is the grateful disbelief on his face, a deep bubbling laugh as the ground shakes with someone else's tantrum.

He is the heartbeat singing into her hands, distant, strong, and so irrefutably alive.

* * *


	3. I, We, Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven needs a name.
> 
> or
> 
> Pronoun trouble.

* * *

Steven had waited for her outside of school, and she's just now realizing that it should have occurred to her that he would have been with Lion, because _of course_ Lion goes everywhere with him. Which would be fine except that Lion is an obscenely fluffy and pink _actual lion_ that also happens to be about the size of a horse. Stretched out under a tree. By the main entrance of the school. Where everyone can see. 

And, oh boy, does everybody see. The student body is rife with double takes, awed exclamations, and eager phone pictures. A halo of curious kids surrounding a boy and his lion, just a touch to scared to get any closer.

Not that he knows. He's elected to fall asleep under the shade of the trees, so Connie simply cuts through the crowd and pokes him awake.

"Oh, hey Connie." He wipes the sleep out from his eyes. "Didn't mean to doze on you. Lion was so soft, and it was so nice out here, we clocked out."

"It's cool. Now let's get out of here before the crowd gets too wild."

.....

"You did it again."

"Did what?"

"The 'we' thing."

"I did? Oh, jeez." He turns to sound a muffled drone of despair into Lion's fur. "I don't really _mean_ to, it- it just comes out, sometimes."

"Is it... does it have to do with-" She gestures at his gem. "With when you..."

She looks, really looks at his gem, and remembers a face blank with rage, a scream that made craters in the ground. A single-minded, unstoppable shield, a boy that walked on air.

"When there were... two of you."

"Oh. Yeah. I think- yeah, it's kinda that."

For a little while, the only sound is Lion's deep breathing and the crime show her parents are watching downstairs.

"When we-" Steven slaps his hand over his mouth. He looks back to his own hand for a moment, uncertain. "When I- when... _we_ were... split. I remember seeing myself from across the room. I never... it had never been like that, before. We were only ever Steven. We never even _knew_ there was a we. And then I was Steven again." His other hand clutches at his shirt, bunched around his gem. "Except I'm not just Steven anymore. I'm still them. I'm still _we_."

" _Jesus Christ on a bike_ , Steven. How long have you been like this?"

"I caught it about... a month? After we came back from Homeworld. But honestly?" He sighs, turning his head to the ever so slightly opened door. "Maybe it was always. I talked to myself alot, you know? Like the way we do when we're Stevonnie. I never thought it was weird, but now... I don't know."

"... You okay? Both of you."

Steven looks at her, and the hand on his shoulder, and takes it into his own with a quiet smile.

He doesn't answer her question.

.....

"Haha, it's so tiny." He turns over the little notebook in his hands. "What's this one for?"

"It's names." She bites out. "For you. For your _we_."

His smile falters.

"You're Steven. You're Steven, but you're still them, and they're still you. Still people. And don't all people deserve a name?"

.....

They are Sten and Vendan.

Sten is weight, stone, and earth. The garden that will grow their strength, their memory, their power, their kindness. A scaffold of body and blood and bone and life.

Vendan is crown, castle, and shield. The unyielding wall, the unmoved roar of their conviction. An apparition of light and sound and fury and thunder.

And Connie- suddenly sounding so unsure in a way she has not been to them, to _him_ , in what feels like years- tucks away her hair as she asks him if he will take the names she has given them.

"It's perfect." Steven's hand is on her face, their eyes meet and he hopes that she can see what this gift means to him, exactly what she has given. " _Thank you._ "

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And later that weekend, Priyanka will come across Connie's internet history, and have a miniature stroke over all the baby names popping up. There will be a very awkward discussion about whether or not Connie is pregnant. Steven never finds out about this conversation.


End file.
